our pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski on duty from there tonight. jim, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. tomorrow, defense secretary leon panetta will announce that he's lifting the ban that prevents female soldiers and marines from serving in direct combat ground combat roles. according to one senior defense official, this clears the way now for women to become combat infantry. for the past ten years, u.s. military women have served at the front lines in both iraq and afghanistan. but never allowed in direct ground combat roles. lifting the 20-year ban against women in combat will ultimately put them directly into the heat of battle. it opens some 237,000 combat-related positions to women. initially, women will be assigned to combat support roles, communications, logistics and as drivers. gradually, they'll work their way closer to battle as medics, corpsmen and manning artillery before they become combat infantry troops. despite the combat ban, women have paid the ultimate price of war. 152 u.s. military women have been killed in ira